Once and Again
by kmander
Summary: To what lengths would the Inquisition go to defeat Corypheus? After learning Corypheus' dragon is the resurrected archdemon of the fifth blight, Leliana does the unthinkable and brings the Hero of Ferelden back to life to give the Inquisition one last chance at victory.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- The End is the Beginning is the End

_This wasn't going well. One by one Idallyias' group was falling under the attacks of the archdemon. She rolled out of the way as a wall of flame poured across the battlefields engulfing the last of the dwarves and elves that had marched out into this final battle with them. Their screams filled her ears as she covered her mouth to keep the smoke and ashes of her burning allies from overtaking her senses. _

_ Morrigan was casting spells directly into the dragon's face on the other side of the battlefield while Alistair protected her from the waves of demons speeding at them to protect their master. Wynne was trying to cast healing spells on Zevran, who Leiliana had dragged away from under the feet of the beast greatly injured, while Oghren tried to vein to find any survivors from the dwarves of whom he'd just watched burn to their deaths. _

_ For a moment the archdemon took its eyes off of Idallyais to focus its attacks entirely on Morrigan and she knew this was her moment. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her focusing away from the smoke burning her lungs with every breath. Her own weapon had been lost earlier in the battle after being whipped across the battle by the dragon's snake-like tail; grabbing a great sword covered in demon blood from the ground, she pushed herself until she was lined up with the tail of the dragon. _

_ Without thinking, she grabbed on to the demon's scales and climbed as fast as she could until she had made it up onto his back. As gently as possible she made her way up his spine until she was located at the base of his neck. As she drew her sword up, she hesitated for a second, this had not been the plan. Alistair was the warden who was to take the final blow and destroy not only the beast but sacrifice his own life in the process, but he was too important to Ferelden and to her for her to let that happen. Idallyais' eyes briefing met Alistair's as he fought to protect Morrigan and Wynne directly below the dragon, as she drove the sword deep into the archdemon's neck she heard his screams ring out across the battlefield before being drowned out by the dying cries of the archdemon. _

_ She pulled her sword from its neck and drove it down again severing the remaining part of its neck, at that moment her body seized as the spirit of the demon tried to pass and possess her body. As she began to fall through the sky, she could feel the demon rage as its spirit died. Her body felt like it was filled with lightening trying to escape out of every inch of her skin. Her last thoughts were that they had done it, they were safe, it was finally over. _

It was dark, so dark. She felt the tiniest sensation in her fingertips as though a wind were being drawn across them. The sensation spread into her hands and it felt like the electricity was returning into her body as it snapped and crackled into feeling. She couldn't see or move or feel anything else, but she was alive? Was this life? She didn't know what was going on other than this lightening that was all that told her that this wasn't the Fade.

Suddenly her body jerked awake with sensation and the lightning sparked and shot across her limbs searing her with unimaginable pain. The sounds of heavy winds deafened her ears as sound returned and her ears ached with the sound of the screaming that filled her head that she was unable to shut out. With horror she realized that it was her that was screaming uncontrollably as the violent waves of pain took over her senses. Her skin burned as it felt like fire itself was crawling out of her bones and across her limbs. She was losing whatever consciousness she had to the pain as she drifted in and out of pain she became aware that she was not alone and others were talking around her.

"What is happening to her, Fiona? Did it work?" The woman's thick Orlesian accent immediately caught her attention and Idallyais' screams faded as she searched for the source of the voice.

"I do not know, we are in uncharted waters here," the other woman was frightened, Idallyais could hear it from her voice.

"Leliana…Leliana…," her voice was weak and cracked under the simplest of words. She heard the woman release a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank the Maker it's you, my Lady. I was so worried that the spell had not worked."

"Spell…what spell… I can't see, Leliana," every word hurt her as it escaped her lips.

"It's a…well, it's a complicated story that we can't discuss right now, my Lady, but I promise you everything will be okay, I just need you to lay still until you are healed." Leliana's voice betrayed her concern and her fear. Both these women were afraid of her and she grew afraid as light began to grow in front of her eyes. As the light grew brighter if felt like fire poured through her eyes and she screamed as the pain burned her skull from inside out, this pain only increased as the light grew brighter until the whole world suddenly came into focus.

Her eyes could not adjust to the light, but she knew she was inside a building and surrounded by a ring of mages that she'd never seen before and as she looked down realized that the searing pain in her hand was the half of her hand that was missing and the exposed bones to the air. She screamed and began to lose consciousness again. She could hear a man yelling in the background demanding to know what the mages had done. People were frightened and they were frightened of her.

"Let me die." She sobbed as light dimmed. "Just let me die."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Thanks For the Memories

Idallyais stirred to sound of someone cleaning up the room in which she was kept. She carefully opened her eyes, but they were no longer as sensitive to light as they had been. Actually they felt quite fine.

"Identify yourself, servant." The elf stiffened and quickly turned around.

"I'm so sorry to have disturbed your slumber, my Lady," the servant quickly bowed and it was not lost on Idallyais that she was slowly moving her way to the exit door.

"Could you please send a message to my team that I am okay and that I would like to speak to whoever is charge." The elf nodded and exited the door too quickly. She took in her surroundings. There were many tables covered with many texts in books and scrolls. Small rays of sun were making their way under the covers in the window and draping their way across the blanket thrown over her. She paused and cautiously moved to remove the blanket that covered the hand that she had seen last night. She drew her breath and held it as she pulled the cover off to find her hand looking perfectly fine, no bones, no missing flesh. She gingerly touched the skin on top, it was sore but no injury indicated. She sighed and realized it had all just been a bad dream.

She laid back on the bed she was in and tried to think of how she had gotten here. She must be at the camp of one of her allies, but how she got there she had no memory of. What was the last thing she remembered? Every time she tried to think of what had happened before she had that nightmare the visions only appeared blurred. It was like every memory was covered in a fog, she couldn't see anything clearly. Footsteps approached the door to her door and Leliana emerged through the door dressed fully in dark robes with a dark hood hiding her face.

"I was surprised to hear that you were awake, my Lady. You've had a trying night." She came to the side of the bed and had a seat to Idallyais' right. Idallyais searched Leliana's face trying to remember, there was something so close that she couldn't make clear. "I assume you have many questions for me now."

"Where am I, Leliana? How did I get here? Why am I here? I can't remember"

"We'll start with the easier questions: you're in a place called Skyhold. It is the base of operations for the Inquisition. You were brought here by a trusted group of mages that took on a very dangerous mission to bring you here and you are here because the world is in danger and we need your help."

"The Inquisition?" Idallyais was confused and had never heard of this group or known of Leliana's affiliation with them. "What do these people need my help for?"

"And that my Lady is where this story gets a lot more complicated, there is an ancient darkspawn named Corypheus who has used ancient elven magic to tear a rift into the sky itself. He plans to use this magic to walk physically into the Fade itself and conquer the Black City and their ancient gods. To help accomplish this task, he resurrected an archdemon, the archdemon you killed to end the fifth blight…"

Her eyes opened in surprise. The archdemon. How could she have forgotten the archdemon? That's what had been happening; the memories flooded her head of her team being killed and the feeling of bringing down the sword into the neck of the mighty dragon. How could the demon live after having its head cut off?

"So the archdemon survived, what are our options? Do we have any resources that survived the battle?" She was trying so hard to picture the battle but her memories were too burry and she could only pick out pieces. There was something calling to her in these memories, but she could not understand what it was. Her head was throbbing and she was having trouble focusing on what Leliana was saying.

"Our allies are a complicated issue- the mages and Templars are now at war over their escalating feud. And no, the archdemon did not survive my Lady." She turned her eyes away from Idallyais and stared out into the empty part of the room.

"Wait…the archdemon was slain? How is that so? I'm sitting here talking to you right now. Was the Warden magic untrue? Did I survive?" Leliana had risen and headed to the door, she looked back and sighed.

"No, the Warden magic was true. When the archdemon died, you perished with it over ten years ago."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Survivor Guilt

Leliana was used to walking as quickly as possible down the stone corridors of Skyhold, but as she traveled from her discussion with the Warden to her summons with the Inquisitor and Commander, Leliana was in no rush to walk into the war room. She knew her actions would have consequences when she made them though the weight and guilt she felt after her years as the Left Hand of Justinia was greater than she ever could have foreseen. As paused as she reached the heavy wooden door that served as the entrance to the war room and considered not entering, and then realized how childish she sounded and pushed the door open.

The Inquisitor was sitting in a chair deep in thought, her hand covering her face from any discernable reaction and her mane of red hair blew gently from the breeze of the door. Commander Cullen kept his face pointed at the table as he dug through piles of correspondence in frustration. Their ambassador Josephine was the only person making eye contact with Leliana. She stepped forward to the table to speak, but before she could get a word out Cullen slammed his fist down on the table sending enemy markers flying.

"What were you thinking, Leliana? How could you do this to your own friend? She trusted you!" Cullen, a man who rarely showed what he was really thinking was screaming at her, this point was not lost on Leliana.

Josephine was fretting over her board of secrets, "Necromancy on the Hero of Ferelden? Oh, what would we do if our allies find out? This could ruin us and anything we've strived to accomplish here." Josephine sat down in desperation as she looked to the other two advisors for any reassurance that wasn't coming.

The Inquisitor finally looked over to Leiliana and asked, "Why? You have always done what needed to be done for the Inquisition. What do you know or what happened that made _this_ necessary?"

"After the Corypheus attacked us with the dragon at Haven," Leliana began, "I sent out my spies to find out everything I could. Nothing came back for some time until I got a lead on rare and unusual supplies requested and purchased by an outsider group of Wardens that had been preparing for a very large summoning. Upon following up on the lead, my spies were able to find that the summoning was for the dragon that Corypheus used to bring destruction on Haven. It was not just a dragon, but an archdemon they had summoned into this world. When Fiona examined the books used by the Wardens to bring forth the demon she realized that they had not only raised an archdemon, but they had resurrected the archdemon of the fifth blight using magic that bought part of Corypheus' spirit itself into the beast. When an archdemon is slain, its spirit travels into the closest vessel to save itself and that's why a Gray Warden needs to be the one to strike the final blow, to house the spirit unto its destruction.

With the archdemon being raised, Fiona realized there was a loophole created by the powerful magic. Lady Idallyais Cousland was in possession of the spirit of the archdemon itself when it killed her and while she remained dead, the fade would protect the demon from harm while part of it already had its foot in the fade for Corypheus. This is not an advantage we could allow him to keep so I sent my spies to bring her remains from Redcliff to here under the cover of night and Fiona, Dorian, and the rest of the mages repeated the spell, forced her spirit back into her remains, then healed the destruction of her body as she screamed in torment for hours on end. The demon's spirit no longer rests in the Fade and we now have the ability to slay it should it attack us again. My job in this inquisition was to do the things that no one else could, that no one else would be asked to do and I have done it. I have given us a fighting chance against Corypheus."

As she looked up at the three sets of eyes staring at her she realized that tears were slowly trailing out of her own. She wiped them away impatiently and began to make her way to the door, but the Inquisitor stopped her.

"Leliana, I am no mage, but I know there is a cost to all magic much less something of this level of power. What was the cost of this magic that we will have to pay?" Leliana stopped at the door and turned back to face her as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"The cost of this has already been paid, it was my soul."


End file.
